


The Immature One

by Misanagi



Series: Illusions [2]
Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-02-17
Updated: 2008-02-17
Packaged: 2017-10-12 14:08:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/125676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misanagi/pseuds/Misanagi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a moment in every boy's life when he has to grow up and become a man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Immature One

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://community.livejournal.com/gw500/profile)[**gw500**](http://community.livejournal.com/gw500/) prompt # 216: Illusion

There's a moment in every boy's life when he has to grow up and become a man. Some boys, though, don't get that opportunity; they didn't quite have the chance to be boys. Sometimes Duo feels that this is true for him. Living in the streets since he could remember, taking care of younger kids before he was ten and burying the closest thing he had to family not that much later isn't really what people would call a childhood.

It's okay, though. It didn't turn out that bad after all. He managed to get his hands on a Gundam and had the chance to fight to save the world. When he had been captured and interrogated, for a single second Duo had been angry. It was like if all those years of cold and hunger and losing people and pain were just too much and as he lay on the cold floor of the cell he asked himself that question he had refused to make for so long: _why me?_

Then Heero had come and without hesitation had put a gun on Duo's face and Duo had to smile at that. He wasn't done yet. It wasn't time to give up.

A soldier's life isn't one for a child, many people would say that, but for Duo it was the opposite. He had held on to any remains of childhood he had, grasped them tightly between his fingers and use any moment, any second he had to allow himself to joke, to relax, to play. Being a pilot was the greatest adventure of all.

Amongst the killing, the death, the danger and losses it was difficult sometimes to force himself to see the brightness, to let whatever was left of the child within him come out and play. When he had met the others he had felt sorry for the childhood they had lost. Heero didn't even know what that was, Trowa had buried it long ago and the shy boy inside him was too timid to get out. Quatre had been burden with responsibility since he was born and Wufei had given up the strong-headed kid inside him to fight.

When he remembered this, Duo called upon the child inside him, the grinning tough kid that had stubbornly refused to be vanquished by the death of Solo, the destruction of the Maxwell church or the life of a Gundam pilot, and let him out. And then a remarkable thing happened. Once in a while the curious kid inside Heero would show up, the shy one inside Trowa would crack a joke, the bratty one inside Quatre would tease and the proud one in Wufei would start an argument.

There's a moment in every soldier's life when they have to play and let themselves be kids. Some soldiers, though, don't get the opportunity; they don't quite know how to be kids. Sometimes Duo feels this is true for all of them. However, the little boy inside him wisely refuses to let that happen. Duo listens to that boy as much as he can.


End file.
